Local area network transmission emulator

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for using switched telecommunications services to emulate a local area network (LAN) medium. The method and apparatus convert a public switched network or an equivalent private network into a LAN cabling method for connecting distant devices using the same communications software as used in traditionally wired LANs.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for using switchedtelecommunications services to emulate a local area network (LAN)medium.

BACKGROUND

Local Area Networks (LANs) provide a method for connecting computers orother devices together to exchange data or to harness groups ofcomputers together to apply their combined power to a single problem.Generally speaking, a LAN includes: 1) a high speed transmission medium,typically metallic or fiber optic, for connecting each of the devices tothe LAN; 2) the ability to transmit a message on the transmission mediumdirected to a single device; and 3) a means known as "broadcast" inwhich all devices connected to the LAN medium can receive a messagetransmitted on the medium. A standard for the implementation of LANdevices and systems has been established by the Institute of Electricaland Electronic Engineers as IEEE Standard 802.

The physical length of the transmission medium and the total number ofdevices connected thereto are typically limited on a LAN due to thephysics of high speed transmission systems. Bridges and routers aredevices used to connect multiple LANs to provide communications betweenindividual LANs and to construct large networks that transcend thetechnical size limits of a single individual LAN. When the individualLANs to be interconnected are at geographically remote locations,bridges and routers are used in pairs, one at each site, to provide apath for data to flow from one LAN to another, with a lower speedcommunication link between the bridge or router pair. Typically the datarates of the long distance communications link is a fraction of the datarate of the LAN medium. The use of bridges and routers has been limited,however, due to the cost of these devices and the costs of the longdistance communications link.

An all-digital telephone network, known as the Integrated ServicesDigital Network ("ISDN"), has become a potential substitute for theprivate long distance lines currently used by bridges and routers. ISDNprovides relatively high speed digital transmission service on an "asneeded" basis, and is different from LAN transmission media in that itis a switched transmission media which provides a point-to-pointtransmission service on an intermittent basis.

Modern communications technology can be analyzed with respect to theOpen Systems Interconnect (OSI) Reference Model. The OSI modeldecomposes a communication system into seven major components or layerswhich are defined by international standards. The OSI model is concernedwith the interconnection between systems, i.e., the way they exchangeinformation, and not with the internal functions that are performed by agiven system. The OSI model depicted in FIG. 1 provides a generalizedview of a layered architecture, using an approach where sets offunctions have been allocated to different layers.

The first layer is known as the physical layer and is responsible forthe transmission of bit streams across a particular physicaltransmission medium. This layer involves a connection between twomachines that allows electrical signals to be exchanged between them.

The second layer is the data link layer, and is responsible forproviding reliable data transmission from one node to another and forshielding higher layers from any concerns about the physicaltransmission medium. It is concerned with the error-free transmission offrames of data.

The third layer, the network layer, is concerned with routing data fromon network node to another and is responsible for establishing,maintaining, and terminating the network connection between two usersand for transferring data along that connection. There can be only onenetwork connection between two given users, although there can be manypossible routes from which to choose when the particular connection isestablished.

The fourth layer is the transport layer, and is responsible forproviding data transfer between two user at an agreed on level ofquality. When a connection is established between two users, thetransport layer is responsible for selecting a particular class ofservice to be used, for monitoring transmissions to ensure theappropriate service quality is maintained, and for notifying the usersif it is not.

The fifth layer is the session layer, and it focuses on providingservices used to organize and synchronize the dialog that takes placebetween users and to manage the data exchange. A primary concern of thesession layer is controlling when users can send and receive, based onwhether they can send and receive concurrently or alternately.

The sixth layer is the presentation layer, and is responsible for thepresentation of information in a way that is meaningful to networkusers. This may include character code translation, data conversion ordata compression and expansion.

The seventh layer is the application layer, and it provides a means forapplication processes to access the system interconnection facilities inorder to exchange information. This includes services used to establishand terminate the connections between users and to monitor and managethe systems being interconnected and the various resources they employ.

Different components (or implementations) that conform to a commonstandard are considered equivalent and interchangeable. A systemconstructed from components that conform to their respective standard isexpected to interoperate (i.e., to be able to communicate) with anyother system constructed out of a different set of components thatconform to the standards. Communications between systems are organizedinto information that is exchanged between entities at each layer.

A layer in the OSI model provides specific services to an upper layerthrough service access points ("SAPs"). Take, for example, the situationwhere Systems A and B are joined by a transmission medium at layer 1.Information from layer x of system A is constrained to communicate withlayer x of system B. The information of layer x of system A istransported, however, by requesting service from layer x-1 of system Afor delivery to layer x of system B. The mechanism for communicationbetween two systems at a single layer is referred to as a protocol(i.e., "a layer x protocol"), and a protocol stack is a set of protocolsfor layers 1 to x. The OSI protocols provide flexibility in usage byincorporating optional features and user determined parameters. Profilesare standards that specify the selection of options and parameters toensure compatibility between two compliant systems. Profiles are neededsince two compliant systems using different profiles may still not beable to exchange data.

In FIG. 1, layer 1 represents the network or transmission medium, andincludes token rings, token buses, and interfaces such as RS-232, RS-530and V.35. Layer 2, the data link layer, has as its primaryresponsibility the transfer of frames of information between physicallylinked devices. When only two devices are connected by the network layermedium, the data link layer assumes that the network layer will providethe mechanism of addressing messages to the proper device.

IEEE Standard 802.2 provides a model which divides the data link layer 2into two sublayers: an upper sublayer for Logical Link Control (LLC) anda lower sublayer for Media Access Control (MAC). The IEEE 802.2 modeldiffers from earlier data link layers of the OSI Reference Model byproviding a method for addressing messages to specific destination. Thisis required since more than two devices are connected by the medium atlayer 1. This mechanism is necessary in the context of a single isolatedLAN (or LAN segment) without connections to other LANs (or LAN segments)because many devices are connected to a common transmission medium and ameans for directing a message to a single destination is important.

The MAC sublayer regulates station access to the transmission mediumthat is shared by multiple stations on the LAN. For a given LAN, the MACsublayer governs a common transmission medium that has one pathway orroute between communicating network stations. In the context of the IEEE802.2 model, the network station address is referred to as the MACaddress and is sufficient for ensuring delivery of a MAC frame to adestination address on the LAN. The MAC sublayer offers servicesconsistent with those in the OSI data link layer.

The LLC sublayer mediates multiple logical connections for upper layerservice users. As a service provider, the LLC sublayer offers severalService Access Points (SAP) as logical ports for multiple upper layerentities located at a given network station address. As a service user,the LLC sublayer issues requests through the SAP provided by the MACsublayer. The LLC sublayer Service Access Points are typically shownsituated between layer 3 (network) and layer 2 (data link) of the OSIReference Model.

A significant number of layer 3 protocols bypass the LLC Service AccessPoint and interface directly to the MAC Service Access Point.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disclosed invention provides a method and apparatus for using theIEEE Standard 802 LLC or MAC service layer as an interface tocommunicate over the ISDN. The disclosed invention presents the ISDN asa LAN transmission media to upper layer (layer 3 and above) protocols,and permits communication systems designed to operate over LAN tooperate over the ISDN. As a result, LAN devices can be dispersedgeographically using inexpensive ISDN communications without thegeographic limitations of a single LAN and without the cost of bridges,routers, and the associated communications links currently used tointerconnect LAN segments.

FIG. 1 shows the relationship of the invention with respect to the OSIReference Model. The generally accepted role of the ISDN in thecommunications industry or OSI Reference Model is shown as a stackoccurring in layers 1 to 3 of FIG. 1 (bottom left). The ISDN has therole of a layer 3 service with service access points to layer 4protocols. Use of the disclosed invention permits ISDN to be used as analternative LAN medium, thus permitting existing computer systems andother communication devices designed to use LANs to be connected throughthe ISDN without change of protocols from layer 3 on up. This allowsaccess to the ISDN for a large body of systems and software withoutrequiring modification.

The disclosed embodiment of the invention features a MAC layerinterface, packet replication to emulate broadcasting on a common accessmedium, physical connection during periods with message traffic,physical disconnection during periods with no message traffic,classification of traffic patterns with re-direction to circuit andpacket switched channels that match the required capacity, a virtualchannel interface that utilizes multiple physical channels to serviceone logical channel, a virtual physical interface that makes multiplephysical interfaces appear as a single physical interface, and a methodfor providing connections to a number of users that exceed the number ofphysical channels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The present invention will be better understood hereinafter as a resultof the detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunctionwith the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically depicts the OSI Reference Model and its relationto the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention forconveying a directed datagram;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention forconveying a broadcast datagram; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention forconveying a multicast datagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Three classes of datagrams are typically submitted to a LAN medium:directed datagrams, multicast datagrams and all stations broadcastdatagrams. The LAN emulator manages LAN datagram traffic by a set oflogical channels between every pair of nodes that exchanges datagrams.The actual transmission of datagrams between nodes is provided by aphysical channel. The LAN emulator only requires a physical channelbetween nodes when datagrams are actively being exchanged over a logicalchannel (between two nodes).

Since the hardware interface to the public network (e.g. ISDN) providesa limited number of physical channels, the LAN emulator provides amonolithic interface to the higher layer protocol process. That processinteracts with a single entity, the LAN emulator, while the totaltransmission service may be provided by more than one hardware interfaceto the public network.

All types of datagrams (directed, multicast, and broadcast) intended fortransmission are potentially subject to one or more filteringmechanisms. A filter can either leave the datagram unchanged or removethe datagram from any further transmit processing. Datagrams that remainunchanged are termed ordinary or unfiltered datagrams, while datagramsthat are removed by a filter are termed filtered datagrams. Each filtertypically acts on a specific class or type of datagram.

One generic filtering mechanism used in the invention is termed ratesuppression. Rate suppression acts on certain types of datagrams whichcontain repetitive information, and functions by passing only a certainpercentage or ratio of those datagrams it recognizes. The purpose ofrate suppression filtering is to minimize transmission charges for thosedatagrams whose content does not change or changes very slowly overtime.

Another generic filtering mechanism used in the invention is termedresponse spoofing. Response spoofing acts on those packets which containrepetitive information, but which require a response from thedestination or destinations. The response spoofing filter not onlyremoves these datagrams from further transmission processing, but alsosimulates the response that would be expected from the destination(s),and delivers the spoofed response to the higher layer protocolprocesses.

With reference to FIG. 2, an embodiment of the invention for conveying adirected datagram with a specific destination address through the LANEmulator interface to emulate the transmission of a directed datagram ona LAN is described.

As mentioned above, a protocol stack is a set of protocols for thevarious layers. With the disclosed embodiment, and with reference toFIG. 2, a high layer protocol process submits a directed datagram to theLAN Emulator interface 10 accompanied by the appropriate LAN MAC layersource and destination addresses. For every device there is at least oneLAN MAC address and a corresponding switched network address.

This disclosed embodiment describes a direct interface from higherlayers to the MAC interface, as is commonly found in systems implementedfor personal computers. An LLC interface may be required in somesystems. The difference between an LLC interface and a MAC interface isnot significant with respect to the disclosed invention.

A directed datagram filter 15 makes a determination of the datagram typeby comparing the datagram type with the contents of a directed datagramfilter list 25. This is a list of protocol specific datagrams specificto the application system. When there is a matching datagram type in thedirected datagram filter list 25, the datagram is marked as one whichmay be discarded from the transmission queue or enqueued for a spoofedresponse at a later time. The marking is based upon the actionsspecified within the directed datagram filter list 25.

The datagram is then passed to a channel classifier 20 for furtherqualification. However, datagrams marked for removal from thetransmission queue are not given to the channel classifier 20 and so arenot sent to any destination node. Instead, they are either discarded orsent to the datagram response handler 30, where a spoofed response isformatted and eventually delivered to the higher layer protocol process.

The channel classifier 20 receives unfiltered directed datagrams fromthe directed datagram filter 15. Using the LAN MAC address as a searchkey, the classifier 20 retrieves a switched network address and anassociated node channel status from a network definition table 35.

The network definition table 35 has an entry for each node on theemulated LAN. A node may have multiple entries with different LAN MACaddresses. Each entry includes, but is not limited to: the LAN MACaddress, which is the node LAN address the device would have if it wasconnected to a conventional LAN; the switched network address, which isthe address of the device on the switched network (e.g., for devicesusing ISDN, the public network number on the public switched telephonenetwork); the node type, which is a descriptor which describes the nodetype or function; suspension timer values, which are the parameters thatcontrol the suspension of the network connection; preferred serviceparameters, which specify the preferred types of transmission servicewhen a connection is created; node channel status parameter, whichreflects the operational status of a remote node; and broadcast serviceselectors, which are parameters that specify the methods by whichbroadcast messages are distributed to remote nodes.

One class of preference is the type of service. The effective bandwidthdelivered is determined by the preferred service parameter of thenetwork definition table. The channel classifier can decide whether totransmit low priority information on low bandwidth channels, such as theD-channel packet switched service of ISDN. Devices connected to an ISDNmay select, among others, a B-channel circuit switched service,B-channel packet switched service, D-channel packet switched service, orHO circuit switched service.

Another class of preference is the minimum and maximum throughputdesired. With the disclosed invention, multiple instances of a physicalinterface may be used under a single service layer. The upper layerprotocols can therefore be presented with a single logical service layerwhile the actual transmission service may be delivered by more than onephysical interface. It is possible to synthesize higher speedtransmission service by combining multiple physical interfaces under asingle service interface. Thus a device that requires higher speedtransmission may specify the minimum and maximum number of transmissionchannels to be used when communication is established with a remotenode. For purposes of description of the invention, the logical channelis the connection service delivered to the upper layers, and thephysical channel is the means by which datagrams are delivered.

The datagram is discarded by channel classifier 20 when there is noentry in the table 35 that has the destination LAN MAC address. For LANMAC addresses that are in the network definition table 35, the fourpossible values for node channel status are: registered with a logicalchannel and assigned physical channel(s), registered with a logicalchannel and no physical channels, registered, or not registered.

Where the node channel status for a case is registered node withdatagram traffic on both a logical channel and its physical channels, itis considered a connection that is completely active. An unfiltereddatagram is immediately submitted to the datagram dispatcher 40.

For an unfiltered datagram where the node channel status is registerednode with datagram traffic on the logical channel but with no associatedphysical channel, there is an attempt to establish a connection to thedestination node on a new physical channel. This is accomplished bygiving the datagram to channel manager 45 which attempts to establish aconnection on a physical channel and then to send the datagram over thatconnection. The channel manager 45 manages the process of establishing aconnection through both a logical and new physical channel.

Node registration is a MAC management function that occurs at the timethe LAN Emulator is initialized. When a node is registered with anothernode it means that it will respond to a request for connection. It alsomeans that another node may attempt a connection with it. There is noimplication that the connection attempt will be successful; a connectionattempt may fail because the node's circuit resources may be occupied atthe time of the attempt.

Node de-registration occurs when the LAN Emulator is shut down. Thisinvolves the LAN emulator sending de-registration messages to itsconnection partners. De-registration is not mandatory. A node may alsobe de-registered when an attempt to connect to it fails because thatnode is no longer active.

Datagrams addressed to a node which is not registered are discarded bythe channel classifier 20.

As mentioned above, the channel manager 45 is responsible for initiatinga connection on a logical and/or a physical channel. If there is arequest for connection on a pre-existing logical channel, the channelmanager 45 establishes connections on the requisite physical channel(s).For a connection request when no logical channel exists, the channelmanager 45 will set up a new logical channel as well as new physicalchannels.

A logical channel may be supported by more than one connection to thesame destination through multiple physical channels. The channel manager45 uses a user preference contained within the network definition table35 to determine the number of physical channel resources to allocate fora given connection attempt to the destination node.

There are three possible occurrences when there is an attempt toallocate a physical channel on behalf of the logical channel. In thefirst, there are either no physical channels available for conveying thedatagram or there is a network problem that prevents a call from beingoffered to the destination node. In the second, there are physicalchannels available, but when a call request is placed to the remote nodeat the destination switched network address, a rejected call responsegets returned. In these two cases, the logical channel is optionallytorn down and network definition table maintenance is performed.

The third possibility is that the call request is accepted by the nodeat the destination switched network address, at which point theconnection is considered physically active

When the node channel status field shows that no logical or physicalchannel exists, there is a choice for an appropriate course of actionwhich is dependent upon whether a connection on a physical channel ispossible, and which requires a destination node to have registered itsLAN MAC address and to be able to accept a connection request. In thiscase, a logical channel and logical channel reference number areassigned after the physical channel is set up and a connectionestablished.

The channel manager 45 will also monitor traffic on the physicalchannel, and during periods when there is no traffic, it may disconnectthe physical channel while maintaining the logical channel. When newdatagram traffic begins, the channel manager 45 will reassign a physicalchannel. During this process a physical channel is described as beingsuspended and later resumed. The channel manager 45 will monitorexternal events such as incoming calls and determine whether a logicalchannel will release its physical channel in order to reassign it to thenew call. This may be termed release of bandwidth on demand.

One consequence of the invention's embodiment of suspend and resume isthat the channel manager 45 may maintain more logical channels than themaximum number of physical channels possible. This is known as channelover-subscription. The channel manager 45 may associate an idle physicalchannel to a new logical channel while still maintaining the logicalchannel that had originally used the physical channel. As a consequenceof over-subscription, there may be periods when there is more demand foractive channels than there is supply of preferred physical channels. Insuch cases the channel manager 45 will assign alternate (i.e., slowerand/or more expensive) physical channels to carry the data.Over-subscription is also tied to the concept of a monolithic interfacesince the effectiveness of over-subscription is enhanced by the use of alarger number of physical channels.

The directed datagram dispatcher 40 receives a list of physical channelsto which a datagram must be transmitted. It then manages datagramdelivery by sending it through those individual channels. Usually thereis only one element in the channel list. If multiple channels are listedand the packet size is sufficiently large, the datagram dispatcher 40may fragment the datagram and send the marked fragments on differentphysical channels to the same logical destination.

With reference to FIG. 3, the mechanisms employed to convey an allstations broadcast datagram through the LAN Emulator interface toemulate a local area network are described. An all stations broadcastdatagram has a LAN MAC destination address with a format that is aspecial case in that all bits are set to one in each of the address'soctets. This transmission is emulated by sending the datagram to alleligible members of a finite list of recipients.

As with the emulation mechanism for the directed datagram, for an allstations broadcast, the higher layer protocol process submits a datagramto the LAN Emulator interface 110 with an all stations broadcastdestination LAN MAC address. Because there are several uses for an allstation broadcast datagram that are entirely application dependent,several selection mechanisms may be used for separating broadcastdatagrams of different origin and directing them into appropriatecourses of action. For example, some datagrams may be entirely blockedfrom transmission by filter 115, some may have a transmission frequencyattenuated by the filter, and the filter may have no effect on thetransmission frequency of others. The metric for these filters may be afunction of either cost, throughput performance, propagation delay orsome other factor.

The broadcast filter 115 compares the broadcast type against a broadcastfilter list 125 to determine whether the broadcast datagram is acandidate for filtering or is an ordinary broadcast datagram. Thefiltering mechanism 115 affects the transmission frequency of broadcastseither by not transmitting any of the datagrams or by transmitting overtime 1 of every n datagrams for each type submitted.

The broadcast filter list 125 either specifies a spoofing response orcontains the parameters and metrics that specify the appropriateattenuation rate for each type of broadcast datagram. The value of thisrate is zero for blocked broadcasts or is expressed as a ratio forreduced broadcast frequencies. The filtering mechanism 115 does notaffect the transmission frequency of unfiltered broadcasts, which areautomatically given to the channel classifier 120.

The channel classifier 120 receives all unfiltered broadcasts and somereduced frequency broadcasts and qualifies the broadcast eligibility fortransmission. When the channel classifier 120 receives a broadcastdatagram, it determines a list of destinations to which to send thebroadcast and then passes that list to the channel manager 145 to handledelivery.

The channel classifier 120 will enqueue unfiltered broadcasts fordelivery through all channels that are eligible for this service. Thisis regulated by the broadcast service parameter of the networkdefinition table 135.

The functions of the channel classifier 120 may be accomplished bysoftware, hardware, or through packet replication services provided bythe network. There may be several reference criteria that are useful fordeciding which destinations receive a particular broadcast datagram, andthe network definition table 135 can hold values for these criteriaincluding node type and node channel status.

The channel manager 145 receives information from the network definitiontable 135 to discriminate between those logical channels with activephysical channels and those for which a physical channel must be firstreestablished. For logical channels with active physical channels, thechannel manager 145 submits the broadcast frame to the datagramdispatcher 140 with a request for transmission. The datagram dispatcher140 receives a list of physical channels to which a broadcast must betransmitted and then manages broadcast delivery by sending the broadcastthrough the individual physical channels.

For logical channels without active physical channels, the channelmanager 145 enqueues the broadcast datagram for delivery to thoselogical channels than can establish a new physical channel.

With reference to FIG. 4, the mechanisms employed to convey a multicastdatagram through a LAN emulator interface to emulate a local areanetwork are described. A multicast destination MAC address isrepresented by a `1` in the Individual/Group Bit (the LSB) and a `0` inthe Universal/Local Administration Bit (the LSB+1) of the first octet,thus denoting a Group address within the universally administeredaddress space. As with broadcasts, this class of transmission isemulated by sending the datagram to a list of recipients. The list maybe same as the list maintained for the all stations broadcast datagram.

Again, as with the directed datagrams and broadcast datagrams, thehigher layer protocol process submits a datagram with a multicast LANMAC address to the LAN Emulator interface 210, which in turn submits it,after filtering in filter 215 based on information in the multicastfilter list 225, to the channel classifier 220. When the channelclassifier 220 receives a multicast that is enqueued for transmission,it uses the network table 235 to determine a list of destinations towhich to send the multicast and passes that list to the channel manager245 to handle delivery.

There are several reference criteria that may be useful for decidingwhich destinations receive a particular multicast datagram. The networkdefinition table 235 holds values for these criteria which include nodetype, node channel status, and multicast filter lists.

Channel manager 245 examines the network definition table 235 todiscriminate between those logical channels with active physicalchannels and those for which a physical channel must be firstreestablished. For logical channels with active physical channels, thechannel manager 245 submits the multicast frame to the datagramdispatcher 240 with a request for transmission. The datagram dispatcher240 receives a list of channels to which a multicast must betransmitted. It the manages multicast delivery by sending it through theindividual channels.

It should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the inventioncontains a message receive function which will perform complementaryprocessing on received messages. All received directed datagrams, aswell as broadcast and multicast datagrams, will be passed up to thehigher layer protocol process.

It should also be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that thedisclosed invention is not limited to any specific computer architectureor hardware device. For example, the disclosed embodiment works not onlyon IBM compatible personal computers with the Novell network operatingsystem, but with other computer architectures as well, including IBMmicrochannel personnel computers, SUN SPARC workstations, AppleMacintosh computers, minicomputers and mainframes. In addition, althoughthe embodiment disclosed herein simulates LANs over ISDN, the inventionis applicable to other switched networks such as pre ISDN switcheddigital networks, X.25 networks, and frame relay networks.

Although it may be preferred to implement the described procedures usingsoftware, they can also be implemented using well-known hardwareelements. Similarly, the disclosed invention can be applied to othercommunication devices which use LAN interfaces, including LAN bridgesand routers.

Although an embodiment of the invention has been illustrated anddescribed, it is anticipated that various changes and modifications willbe apparent to those skilled in the art, and that such changes may bemade without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by thefollowing claims:

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for using a switched network as a datapath between devices connected to local area networks (LANs),comprising:receiving a datagram having a LAN source address identifyinga source device on its associated LAN and a LAN destination addressidentifying at least one destination device on its associated LAN from alogical link control or medium access control service layer of thesource device; for each of the destination devices, retrieving, from anetwork definition table having an entry for each device on the switchednetwork, a switched network address corresponding to the LAN destinationaddress and identifying the destination device on the switched network;for each of the destination devices, establishing, based on the switchednetwork address, a connection on at least one physical channel of saidswitched network for transmittal of said datagram to the destinationdevice; and for each of the destination devices, providing said datagramto said at least one physical channel for transmission to thedestination device over the switched network.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising comparing said datagram with information stored in areference list to determine the datagram type.
 3. The method of claim 2,further comprising retrieving a node channel status from the networkdefinition table.
 4. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one logicalchannel receives the datagram and the at least one physical channel ofthe switched network comprises multiple circuit or packet switchedchannels which are selectively mapped into one logical channel.
 5. Themethod of claim 2 wherein a single logical channel receives thedatagram, the at least one physical channel of the switched networkcomprises multiple circuit or packet switched channels, and the logicalchannel is mapped onto the multiple circuit or packet switched channelsto provide incremental capacity for datagrams received by the logicalchannel.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the received datagram is a lowbandwidth datagram that has periodic infrequent arrival characteristicsand which is intended for delivery to multiple destination devices,wherein the low bandwidth datagram is delivered to each of thedestination devices at a rate less than or equal to an original rate atwhich the low bandwidth datagram is received.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein the received datagram is a low bandwidth datagram that hasperiodic infrequent arrival characteristics and is provided to aphysical channel other than the at least one physical channel for whichthe connection was established.
 8. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising maintaining at least one logical channel for receiving thedatagram while each of the physical channels are disconnected.
 9. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the at least one physical channel comprises aplurality of circuit or packet switched channels and the connection tosaid channels is de-established and re-established when datagram trafficpatters demand the services of a particular circuit or packet switchedchannel which is unavailable.
 10. A system for using a switched networkas a data path between devices connected to local area networks (LANs),comprising:means for receiving a datagram having a LAN source addressidentifying a source device on its associated LAN and a LAN destinationaddress identifying at least one destination device on its associatedLAN from a logical link control or medium access control service layerof the source device; means for retrieving, for each of the destinationdevices and from a network definition table having an entry for eachdevice on the switched network, a switched network address correspondingto the LAN destination address and identifying the destination device onthe switched network; means for establishing, for each of thedestination devices and based on the switched network address, aconnection on at least one physical channel of said switched network fortransmittal of said datagram to the destination device; and means forproviding, for each of the destination devices, said datagram to said atleast one physical channel for transmission to the destination deviceover the switched network.
 11. The system of claim 10, furthercomprising means for comparing said datagram with information stored ina reference list to determine the datagram type.
 12. The system of claim11, further comprising means for retrieving a node channel status fromthe network definition table.
 13. The system of claim 11 wherein atleast one logical channel receives the datagram and the at least onephysical channel of the switched network comprises multiple circuit orpacket switched channel which are selectively mapped by means forselectively mapping into one logical channel.
 14. The system of claim 11wherein a single logical channel receives the datagram, that at leastone physical channel of the switched network comprises multiple circuitor packet switched channels, and the logical channel is mapped onto themultiple circuit or packet switched channels by means for mapping toprovide incremental capacity for datagrams received by the logicalchannel.
 15. The system of claim 10 wherein the received diagram is alow bandwidth datagram that has periodic infrequent arrivalcharacteristics and which is intended for delivery to multipledestination devices, wherein the low bandwidth datagram is delivered toeach of the destination devices by means for delivering at a rate lessthan or equal to an original rate at which the low bandwidth datagam isreceived.
 16. The system of claim 10 wherein the received diagram is alow bandwidth datagram that has periodic infrequent arrivalcharacteristics and is provided by means for redirecting to a physicalchannel other than the at least one physical channel for which theconnection was established.
 17. The system of claim 10 furthercomprising means for maintaining at least one logical channel forreceiving the datagram while each of the physical channels aredisconnected.
 18. The system of claim 10 wherein the at least onephysical channel comprises a plurality of circuit or packet switchedchannels and the connection to said channels is de-established andre-established by means for re-dedicating when datagram traffic patternsdemand the services of a particular circuit or packet switched channelwhich is unavailable.